A .studio Freebie

I haven't been here in a while!!!!

I went back to work 10 months ago and LOVE it!  Unfortunately my 20hrs a week at work has taken away from my crafting, sewing, painting and creating... not to mention spending time with friends :(

I did manage today to create a silhouette file...

(download free .studio file here)

Leah, my brilliant fitness instructor at Motion Fitness said this Wednesday morning (while we were busting out a couple hundred squats and lunges with a barbell on our shoulders).  Of course she was referring to strength training but it struck me as profound in relation to every experience we have in our lives!  If my dramatic little girls didn't challenge me, then I wouldn't become a better mother and person.  If people I worked with at church and work weren't difficult it wouldn't help me to be more patient, understanding and forgiving.

I believe we have a great responsibility while on this earth to become the best people we can be.  To make mistakes and learn from them and to encourage those within our sphere of influence to do the same.

I will be cutting this out in vinyl and placing it somewhere in my house where I will see it regularly.  Perhaps this daily reminder will increase my patience and understanding as a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend.

Perhaps someone else will find the same motivation from these words!

Please leave a comment letting me know if the link worked properly - this is the first time I have used GE.TT

Canvas Baby Stats

I completed another pinterest project... love pinterest for craft ideas.  This is an 8x10 canvas with vinyl lettering.  I made the girls' matching as they will be sharing a room come next year.  It will be great to finally have something on the wall in Hailey's room!

Craft Room Sneak Peak

The room is all put together it just needs some final touches (aka- Vinyl).  This was the first one I put up.

Thank you to Ian for his master crafting skills! My pegboard, cup hook and other items are so handy!!!!  Keep an eye out here for the big reveal in the next couple weeks.

Jen

Whipped it together

I whipped this together today (I love writing that.... because rarely can I just make something quick... but I did...really).  I had the board already cut/routered and painted.  All I had to do was a little modge podge, drill a few holes, cut some vinyl and stick it all on!  I love it, but there are so many flaws in it too because I haven't done something 'exactly' like this before and messed some things up!

found the tutorial/link for this project here

 Hershey Kisses will be put into the little number slots each day as a treat

I have never drilled little holes like this... and really wasn't comfortable doing it.  I should have waited till Ian got home because one of the holes went straight through when it was only supposed to be a partial hole.  I tried to solve the ugly/jagged hole by covering it with vinyl... which worked pretty well.  There will be hershey kisses in the holes anyways so it won't be seen (but I know it is there).

I also used the negative space on the vinyl instead of the positive so that I could have the black letters showing through the 'kisses' word. I modge podged the paper underneath a little crooked though and it went into the above space where it shouldn't have... and I can still see the other writing through the vinyl.  Guess it isn't thick enough vinyl to cover it.

Those are the worst of the flaws... which are bearable.  Maybe this will be a good Valentine's craft for our craft group to try?  I know what to do now so others look nothing but perfect!

I can't wait to get my chocolates and start the countdown!  It will also be the anniversary of Ian proposing 4 years ago (well it was actually on Feb 16th he did it... man was I ticked when Valentine's came and went that year with no ring ;)

Family Tree

OLD POST - was simply adding a label to it and it moved to the top of the pile!



I have been trying to come up with something to put on our massive, empty wall in the kitchen.  Lots of ideas passed through my mind, along with this massive tree that would fill the whole wall...  It felt a little too 'permanent' for me (no vinyl isn't permanent but what if I didn't like it? - and Ian wasn't for it).  So I opted for something a little smaller.

This was the first time I used canvas to put vinyl on.  I wasn't sure if it would work but figured it would be an easier medium than all the work involved with wood!

Vinyl projects!

Here are a few projects I just finished working on for some friends!

Picture wall

I have been humming and hawing over what to do with this long empty wall in our kitchen.  The plan that has been going for a few months now was to make it into a 'family tree' / picture wall.  I knew I wanted to use the tree canvas' I had made a while back but thought it would be too many large items for the wall.  I found a way to make it work though.  This isn't finished yet as I have more 4x6 and 5x7 photos to add but this will be the centre of it.  I'll post when the rest get put up as well.

the photo is crooked, not the pictures ;)

I am going to add black/white/tan frames to keep with the colour scheme and once all the pictures are up I will be adding some vinyl wording.

I bet I finally get it done just before the baby is born then I will have to get new family pictures with the baby to make it 'up to date'.

Jars complete

Here are the finished jars!

Finally put it up

I made this a whole year ago.... and finally put it up on our house.  How many times do people come ring your doorbell after 7pm?

When you have a sleeping baby it does not make a good start for a salesperson.  If anyone rings the bell now they will loose their hand ;)

Shortly to follow will be a NO SOLICITING sign... though I guess the door to door season is done :)

Re-purpose

Do you use store-bought baby food for your child?  I do!  I tried to go au naturel and make my own stuff at home... but guess what little stinker REFUSED to eat the stuff I made?  Yes, it was Hailey.  So it was back to the store-bought for us.  Since we started giving her the stuff at 5 months I have been collecting baby food jars.  I have not kept all of them (gosh that would be ridiculous) but I do have about 50! (okay that is ridiculous too).  I had a plan to do 'something' cute and crafty with them. and I have been using a few of them to store colour-coordinated buttons and ribbons.  I just haven't finished making them pretty to show you.  (not yet at least)

I have, however, almost completed another use for them.  Ever heard of "Till Debt do us Part"?  I think Gail is brilliant working with these crazy overspending families to get their debt down and save some money.  Check out her personal website here!  It has all the instructions and budgeting forms you will need.

Now we aren't one of those crazy over-spenders but we also haven't made much effort to save some money.  So Ian and I decided to try out her cash budget plan. We have been going for almost a month now on cash only.  I am surprised that it isn't as inconvenient as I thought it would be.  We started with a smaller budget than we had normally been spending so we were saving money from the start and we still had leftover cash at the end of each week.  It is surprising how easy it was to spend 250$ at the grocery store each week.... now we have only a 150$ grocery budget to get what we need... The whole experiment has been very exciting for me as I was never a good 'saver'.

Well this post is supposed to be about something I made... and I am finally getting to it.

For the budget plan you need jars to put your cash in.  Here comes the baby food jars.  Now these ones are a bit small for it but bills fit just barely into a Gerber jar.  You need 6 for the categories: Food, Clothing/Gifts, Transportation, Entertainment, Other and Savings.

 I painted the lids black.... still waiting for them to dry to get you the final pic!

Used my vinyl cutter to make the words on the jars...

And will be putting these pictures on the tops of the lids so they are quick to identify.

All in all a quick easy project that is proving very useful for our weekly budgeting.  I wonder how much we will save if we do this for a whole year?


So if you have a stash of jars, and want to save some money too try the cash budget plan.  Also there are so many other things you can do with baby food jars.

This is what my button jars will become when they are done.  With different colours though...

And these magnetic spice jars are pretty cute too

See what you can re-purpose in your house!

Here it is!!!!

I didn't check the tan vinyl colour before I cut it out though and it is far too close to my wall colour.  I think I will change the trees to white if someone is interested in this one let me know.  I'll check my costs and let you know what I am charging.

A Preview

I finished my family tree project tonight (well part of the larger picture) but it is too dark to get a good shot.

To give you an idea I took a couple of these

added some of this

cut this in half and put half on each...

I know you can see it right now!  no?  okay then check back tomorrow for a picture!